DISCLAIMER:

We don't own them, nor make any profit from them, but gee we'd love to!

NEW YEAR'S DAZE

By: RogueTitan

Huge Thank You

To Espiritu – for your free timeandsupport, your help and suggestions, thank you so much!

Warnings

Whumping (don't we love that!) and of course the whole Sheppard/Weir thing.

If you are uncomfortable around this kind of delight we understand, but we love it!

A/N: - Hey all! – sorry for the delay in updating; you can't go blaming Titan5 for this, it's my RL that stopped the wheels for a bit so if you want to throw things, throw them at me – chocolate is always good for that sort of thing! Medical stuff is my creation this time so for all you medically minded folk, - please don't choke on my mistakes or the liberties I've taken!

As always, thank you so very much for your great reviews, we love them all!

-o0o-

CHAPTER THREE

-o0o-

They raced to Atlantis.

The pilot flying the "infirmary" jumper concentrated like never before, willing every once of speed from the Ancient machine and wishing he could think himself back to Atlantis in a heartbeat. It took a little longer than that.

In the back, the concentration was different. Carson Beckett and the Australian nurse Amy worked to keep John Sheppard as comfortable as was humanly possible. Carsons' mind was still reeling from the fact that his number one patient – sometimes the bane of his life – was injured again. Correction - had almost got himself killed again. Truth be told even Carson wasn't able to blame Sheppard for this one. Who would have thought this would happen. How on earth did they have such inordinately bad luck out here? Talk about having discovered the birth galaxy of the infamous "Murphy". To think he had always thought that "Murphy's Law" was an earth thing. It was obvious now though. "Murphy" had to have been an Ancient.

"How's he doing Carson?" Nick yelled from his position beside Mrs. Wang.

"No so good Nick, he's lost too much blood, I can't get his pressure up enough without transfusin' him" Carson called back. "How's Mrs. Wang?"

"Not much better, I've got her stable, but only just. I can't do much more without an OR"

"Aye, right back at you, Bloody hell, can't this thing go any faster?" Carson voiced his frustration at the pilot.

"As fast as we can, Sir. Atlantis has been alerted and your teams are waiting for you in the jumper bay. Two ORs are being made ready as we speak." the pilot answered, his attention never leaving the instruments in front of him.

Carson was impressed. These guys were good; actually, better than good. "Thank you son, well done." It could make all the difference."

"Dr. Beckett." Amy interrupted. "He's coming round."

Carson snapped his attention back in time to see Sheppard's limbs start to twitch. Sheppard moaned, his feeble attempts to pull his hand away from Carson easily thwarted. Amy reached out and placed a controlling hand on his other arm, stroking it gently, grounding him for the inevitable jerk back to consciousness and all its misery.

As Carson continued to hold Sheppard's wrist as he took his pulse, he could feel his patient start to struggle again. Sheppard moaned, his face pale and contorted with what could only be terrible pain. "Colonel Sheppard, lie quietly now. You've been injured. Don't move too much now. I need you to be still as you can." Carson spoke quietly. As the doctor reassured the colonel, he shifted his grip from his patient's wrist to his hand, squeezing it gently in an attempt to reinforce the calmness in his voice. Inwardly, Carson felt anything but calm.

"Burning……" Sheppard mumbled, his head lolling slowly from side to side. Amy reached up and tried to stop him, stroking his forehead rhythmically to try to still him.

"Aye, it's burning son, I know. You've damaged some nerves, so it's going to feel like it's burning, but it's not really. Just hang in there for a bit longer for me. I'll give you a little more morphine, though I can't give you too much until I can get some blood into you; you've lost too much." Carson explained to the moaning man.

Carson inserted a large syringe into the IV port and started to very slowly inject its contents. Sheppard opened his eyes, trying to focus in the direction of Carson's' voice. Carson could see the shock on his face when he registered the size of the syringe he was using. Carson chuckled softly. "Don't be getting yourself all wound up now, Colonel. I'm giving you a heap of fluids with this and by administering it nice and slowly, it will hopefully reduce the possibility of you throwing up all over this nice clean jumper. I'm sure that these very nice and capable pilots that have been a complete Godsend don't think they really need to be cleaning up after us. Wouldn't you say that was fair now?"

Carson continued to talk softly to Sheppard trying to soothe the injured man with his steady rhythmic tone as he continued to slowly administer the pain relief. He watched his patient's eyes droop to almost closed, then open suddenly as another wave of pain would take him by surprise. "I know lad. I'm sorry, but I can't sedate you. Your blood pressure is too low, but we'll be home soon, and we'll get you sorted again" Carson reassured him.

"Shit" Sheppard mumbled softly.

"Colonel?" Carson asked

"Shit…… didn't find …" Sheppard made a supreme effort to rouse himself.

"Find what ,Colonel? What didn't you find?"

"Mis'…ltoe"

Carson rolled his eyes. "I'm starting to believe my little sprig though not perfect to some might actually be a lot bloody safer, all things considering" he said quietly, squeezing Sheppard's shoulder. This time when his eyes closed they stayed closed, the morphine finally taking effect.

As promised, the medical staff on duty had everything ready for Carson and Nick when they arrived in Atlantis. The gentle hiss of the infirmary doors sliding open belied the urgency of the current situation. If ever there was a time that the doors needed to burst open, it was now. A gentle hiss just didn't seem expedient enough. The med teams raced through, paying no heed to anything or anyone but their charges.–As the rushed their patients into the medical bay, they snapped out orders to the attending medical staff without even looking to see that they were being heeded. Of course the support staff was there, glued to the incoming patients, along with the doctors, as if they were their very own shadows. The team was home. Now the real party would start. Happy new year indeed.

-o0o-

The first thing he noticed was that the sound was wrong. Everything was wrong. A sudden wave of panic washed over him. He didn't know why. He knew he was hurt, that much came back to him, and he knew he was in the infirmary, but it all felt wrong.

"Infirmary…..I'm in the …". he thought as he gasped at the sudden pain that raced up his leg, the fire as hot as molten lava. He opened his mouth to gasp, to try and take a breath big enough to push the pain down. But his mouth didn't open, and his breath didn't come. He had to tell someone. The pain was searing, its intensity killing him. As the panic increased, his stomach started to recoil with the acid in his stomach. To ward off the building nausea, he tried to suck in lungfuls of air, but his pitiful attempts only made him dizzier. Something wasn't right. Though outwardly John Sheppard made no bones about hating being in the infirmary, more often than not driving Carson insane in his attempts to leave sooner than he'd arrived, in truth when he needed it, the infirmary was Sheppard's sanctuary. On more than one occasion, it had been a feeling of relief that had coursed through his veins when those all-to-familiar ceiling tiles came into view. Even when he was sick or injured, the infirmary still always offered him safety and a quieting peacefulness. But not today. This time, his comforting sanctuary felt more like a claustrophobic prison.

He didn't know why this was happening to him. He dimly knew he had never felt this bad before while waking up in the infirmary. He struggled in vain to get his eyes to open, to move, to speak, anything at all that would help him tell someone about the pain. It was bad, worse than anything he'd ever felt before. The lights were bright above him. He could feel the heat from them penetrate through his closed eyelids. - He tried to roll away, roll over, sit up, just to move. He couldn't. It was then that the panic really set in. He couldn't move, not a muscle.

Suddenly, Nick's voice echoed loud in his ears. A wave of relief swept through him as he registered the sound of the doctor's voice. They'd finally come. Surely, they must know about the pain. In his stupor, it made sense that they would know, and he refused to listen to the little voice in his head telling him otherwise. God, they had to know. They must know! He was going to die, right here, right now if they didn't.

He was in too much pain to muster any false bravado today. Nothing he had ever experienced before rated a mention after this. Never before had he experienced such agony. He started to shake, and his stomach tied in knots. He was so cold, so very cold. He would have shivered from the cold, but the heat from the lights shining down on his face and the fiery pain radiating throughout his body in a feverish pitch overrode all other sensation.

"Oh God, it hurts!" He couldn't understand why they left the room so cold and so bright. And the lights….they were so hot, they must be so close. They felt directly above his face, threatening to burn him with their intensity. Willing himself to ignore the painful heat, he concentrated instead on Nick's voice, waiting for him to acknowledge him. "Please , a blank….et…..need a blanket." He almost whimpered out his need.

Today, he'd beg for drugs, for some warmth. Today, there would be no shrugging off the pain with a quick reply of "I'm good." Today, the pain was beyond excruciating, and he was chilled to the point of wanting to vomit.

He could feel hands on him. Relief swept over him a second time. "Is it Nick? Please let it be Nick….or Carson….,somebody…any…". , Before he could determine who had come to his aid, hands started to move him, and the pain grew worse again. He tried to call out, scream at the hands to stop, that they were hurting him beyond anything he ever tolerated before. But his efforts were in vain.

Just when he thought he couldn't live through another second in this nightmare, the pain spread. His arm joined his leg in a mutual hatred of the body they were attached to, and he screamed without holding back as the panic rose up in him, making him gag. But he couldn't gag, and the scream stayed locked inside him. He lay where they put him, unable to move for himself. Of all the injuries and wounds he had ever suffered, collectively they didn't hold a candle to what was coursing through him now. He prayed for death, plainly and simply. He prayed for this to end, whether heaven or hell would take him he didn't care. Just let it be over.

Another rush of pain mounted an assault and without a single sound, Sheppard gave in and let it take him down to darkness.

-o0o-

"Shit Carson! He's bleeding again!" Nick shouted as he worked quickly to stop its flow.

"Can you get it? Can you see it?" Carson asked quickly.

Blood spurted from Sheppard's arm as Nick struggled to stop the bleeding.

"Damned this! Why the hell did this have to happen?" Nick growled angrily.

Carson lowered his own voice. "Nick, keep going, we've got to try. I'm not giving up on the Colonel yet. We've got to try. Can you see it?"

Nick looked up briefly, his face flustered with exhaustion. "I'm still trying to debris the wound. Damn it, I think I've got more of his clothing in the wound than he was even wearing. The more rubbish I get out, the more bleeders I find. How he didn't bleed out before now God only knows."

Carson shook his head in amazement. "Aye, I knew we were operating on a wing and a prayer, but bloody hell – wolves? I still can't get my bloody head around it." Carson replied.

"Got it! I don't believe it! I've got a damned tooth! One of those mongrels left its tooth in his arm." Nick looked at the nurse beside him as he dropped a long and bloodied tooth into the dish she was holding. "Ok, need more blood, just lost a bucketful." She nodded and quickly set about getting another bag of the Colonel's type hung.

"How's his pressure?" Carson asked, scanning the monitors from where he was still working on Sheppards' leg.

"Not great, he's pumping it out as fast as we can pump it in . This is not good Carson. I hate anaesthetizing him when he's this unstable." Nick added.

Carson let a long sigh. "Aye, it's a bloody minefield trying to get him under without killing him, but give him enough to keep him under. I agree, it's a bloody fine line. Watch him ok?" Carson nodded at the monitors again as Nick started the painstaking task of suturing his patient's arm.

To be continued…

Remember, chocolate is good for throwing, so very good….